The Five Must-See Shows in OC This Week

Levitation RoomDetroit BarJust as their name suggests, Levitation Room's music instills the listeners' ears with the light feeling of floating. The dreamy guitar and lo-fi projections of psychedelic rock and garage are reminiscent of deep 1960s-era rock, but still grounded in an alternative dreamgaze flavor that permeates modern indie music today. This East L.A. quartet's sound is so carefully crafted to golden reverb perfection, they shouldn't be under the radar for much longer. Especially here in Southern California, where their garage sound and far-out '60s visual aesthetic fit right in. They're midway through their month-long residency tonight at Detroit Bar, so catch them while you can, tonight they share the bill with Wax Children, The Sister Ruby Band, and Them Howling Bones. (Aimee Murillo)Tuesday, June 11

The Parson Red Heads
Detroit BarThe Parson Red Heads were one of LA's much-loved indie/folkie-type bands until they moved to Portland, leaving their hometown fans to pine from afar. But there's plenty of beautiful music that comes out of pining from afar--the best of which came from Gene Clark--and so the Parson Red Heads return with a lovely and melancholy set of new songs that sound like they've been missing LA just as much. The heartbroken country-rock stargazers of the early '70s are all over this, and if you ever liked anything between the Flying Burritos Brothers and Beachwood Sparks, you'll squeeze a tear into your craft beer at this one. The band's new EP is available at shows, so you can make the night last forever. (Chris Ziegler)

Wednesday, June 12

Alkaline Trio
House of Blues AnaheimBack in the early 2000s, the dark, cultish, catchy songs of Alkaline Trio held a special place among our mixed CDs--and though they may have faded a little bit from our current playlists of new music, they remain forever embedded in our hearts as a seminal angst-ridden, pop-punk band. But the band is as hard-working as ever, putting out an album every few years--in February, they released My Shame Is True, a 40-minute high-energy collection of tracks recorded with the help of musician/producer Bill Stevenson (Black Flag, Descendents). It's got more grit than the last few Trio records, but fans can still sink into that trademark sound of heartbreak and exuberance. Catch them this week as they stop by the House of Blues. (Erin DeWitt)